Due to udder illnesses which cannot be controlled, the need for a quarter milking machine has become increasingly clear. Such quarter milking machines have already been used for scientific tests in order to be able to separately examine the efficiency of the individual teats.
However, in the case of existing quarter milking machines, the teat is exposed to a vacuum which is too high due to the action principle of said conventional quarter milking machines, which resulted in abnormal changes of the teat. Only after the introduction of a milking cup having a relief valve which is controlled by the pulsator pressure and which during the relief cycle permits atmospheric air to enter inside of the milking cup, has a satisfactory quarter milking machine been worked out (see copending application Ser. No. 72710, filed concurrently herewith and entitled "Collecting Piece").
However, the difficulty of the quarter milking machines consists in four hoses being required for the separate discharge of the milk from the individual teats and in two pulsator underpressure lines having to be additionally supplied during the operation of four milking cups in an alternate cycle. This results in a chaos of hoses and often in a considerable force being applied onto the collecting piece, in particular when the hoses are reinforced due to an unfavorable reciprocal position. This can result in the individual teats being milked to completion under different pressures and furthermore at the end of a complete milking operation in the occurrence of air leaks at the milking cup, possibly causing the milking cup to fall off from the teat.
Therefore the basic purpose of the invention is to provide the supply lines to a quarter milking collecting piece such that they do not interfere with the milking operation.
This purpose is attained by providing a milking hose for a quarter milking machine which is characterized by four flexible conduits, of which two conduits are connected along a first common connecting segment which extends parallel to the longitudinal axis of the hose and by the two other conduits being each arranged on opposite sides of the first connecting segment of the two first conduits and parallel to same and, further, being connected to the two first conduits along a second and third and a fourth and fifth connecting segment. From this, a total milking hose which consists of several conduits is formed, which in cross section has an approximately rhombic design. From this results a hose which as a whole is compact and which has different flexibility in two directions which are perpendicular with respect to one another. Thus the flexibility on the longer axis is less than in direction of the shorter axis of the rhombus. Due to this increased flexibility in one direction, it is possible for the hose as a whole to twist easily corresponding with all directions, since it is flexible in all directions during a twisting. The flexibility can be compared approximately to the flexibility of a leaf spring. The hose can be preferably designed such that passages are provided for transmitting the pulsator pressure, which passages are formed between the first, second and third conduit and the first, second and fourth conduit. Thus an arrangement of altogether six combined conduits is obtained. Thus one obtains as a whole an extremely compact hose arrangement. The convenience in handling of the milking tool is thus considerably improved. A particularly preferable arrangement is obtained when the conduits are extruded in one piece with their respective connecting segments.
According to a further solution to the set purpose, a milking hose for a quarter milking process is characterized by the hose which is manufactured in an extrusion method in one piece having four separate conduits with a substantially equal inner cross section and the central longitudinal axis of the conduits are located substantially at the corners of an equilateral rhombus.
In such an arrangement, it is possible to preferably provide also a fifth and, if needed, a sixth conduit, each separate from the remaining conduits, the cross sections of which lie within the area defined by the equilateral rhombus.
Such a hose substantially simplifies the method of operation, since through only one operation, four to six lines can be connected approximately simultaneously to one collecting piece or can be separated therefrom.